Soudan Campaign of 1897-8 as D.A.A.G. to Lord Kitchener, being present at the Battles of Atbara and Omdurman. In the South African War he was through the siege of Ladysmith as A.A.G. to Sir George White, acted as A.A.G. to Lord Roberts' Army at Headquarters, and commanded with great distinction a Mobile Column during the last eighteen months of the war. As Column Commander he was more than once in action against the brilliant soldier who is now Lieut.-General Smuts. He was Commandant of the Staff College from 1903-6, commanded the 2nd Brigade at Aldershot 1907-10, and the 3rd Division at Salisbury Plain 1910-14.

On the outbreak of the European War he was given command of the 4th Division on the Aisne, and was then put in command of the new IV Corps which included the 7th Division and which landed in Flanders in the beginning of October, 1914. The exploits of the 7th Division form one of the most glorious pages in modern British military history. As all the world knows, it was compelled to fall back with the 3rd Cavalry Division towards Ypres, and on October 16th held the line east of Ypres running through Gheluvelt. On the 20th of the month Sir Douglas Haig's I Corps came into line on its left, and the First Battle of Ypres began. The story of its desperate fighting for Gheluvelt and then for the Klein Zillebeke ridge is familiar to all. The best account of the exploits of the 7th Division is to be found in an order issued by Major-General Capper who then commanded the Division and was later killed in action.

GENERAL SIR HENRY RAWLINSON

"After the deprivations and tensions of being pursued day and night by an infinitely stronger force, the Division had to pass through the worst ordeal of all. It was left to a little force of 30,000 to keep the German army at bay, while the other British Corps were being brought up from the Aisne. Here they clung like grim death with almost every man in the[17]
[18]
[19] trench, holding a line which of necessity was a great deal too long—a thin exhausted line—against which the pride of the German first line troops were hurling themselves with fury. The odds against them were about eight to one, and, when once the enemy found the range of a trench, the shells dropped into it from one end to the other with terrible effect. Yet the men stood firm, and defended Ypres in such a manner that a German officer afterwards described their action as a brilliant feat of arms, and said that they were under the impression that there had been four British Army Corps against them at this point. When the Division was afterwards withdrawn from the fighting line to refit, it was found that out of 400 officers who set out from England only 44 were left, and out of 12,000 men only 2,336."

At the Battle of Neuve Chapelle the IV Corps, including the 7th and 8th Divisions, attacked on the afternoon of the first day on the left of the British front and incurred severe losses in that memorable action. The IV Corps was reconstituted after Neuve Chapelle under Sir Henry Rawlinson, and its three Divisions, the 1st, 15th, and 47th, played a conspicuous part in the Battle of Loos in September, 1915. It was the 15th Division which, it will be remembered, took the village of Loos and Hill 70, and advanced to the suburbs of Lens—one of the most heroic episodes in the whole campaign.

In the spring of 1916 Sir Henry Rawlinson was appointed to the command of the new Fourth Army, which took its place in the line on the right of the old Third Army in the Somme area. He was in command of the whole front when the Battle of the Somme opened on July 1st, 1916. On the first two days of the battle he commanded the whole of the five Corps on that front, but handed over the two northern Corps to Sir Hubert Gough's reserve Fifth Army early in July. The Fourth Army line then ran southward from Thiepval to the junction with the French at Maricourt. Under his direction were fought the actions of July 14th and September 15th and 25th. Few British forces have had a harder task than to break the mighty defences of Contalmaison, High Wood, Delville Wood, and Guillemont.

When the German retreat began in the spring of 1917, Sir Henry Rawlinson led the southern part of the British advance. It was his men who entered Peronne and fought their way to the gates of St. Quentin.

The Commander of the Fourth Army is one of the most accomplished and highly trained of modern British Generals. He has mastered the learning of his profession, and has a perfect understanding of Staff work. But his knowledge is only a small part of the endowment which he brings to work in the field. He has that flair for the decisive moment which no training can give, and his high spirits, stout heart, and steady confidence in himself and his men have made him an ideal Commander, both for the tedious war of positions, and any future war of movement.

IV
GENERAL SIR HUBERT DE LA POER GOUGH, K.C.B., K.C.V.O.

SIR HUBERT GOUGH was born on August 12th, 1870; the eldest son of the late Sir Charles John Stanley Gough. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst, and, in 1889, obtained a commission in the 16th Lancers. He served in the Tirah Expedition and in the South African War. On the outbreak of the European War he commanded the 3rd Cavalry Brigade during the Retreat from Mons and the Battle of the Marne. His Brigade was one of the first to arrive at the Aisne on September 12th, 1914, and, a few weeks later, when the Cavalry Corps was formed under Sir Edmund Allenby, he was given command of the 2nd Cavalry Division. His Division was the first part of the British force to leave on October 3rd for Flanders.

In the First Battle of Ypres, when the small British Army bolted the door of the North against the German sweep, his Division played a foremost part. In General Smith-Dorrien's advance towards La Bassée it moved on the left flank, clearing out the Germans from the forest of Nieppe, the Hill of Cassel, and Hazebrouck. Along with the 1st Cavalry Division it reconnoitred the line of the Lys, and later held the front between Zandvoorde and Messines on the left of Allenby's Corps. In the great struggle of October 30th and 31st it had desperate fighting to hold the line, and, on November 1st, before the French XVI Corps arrived in support, it was forced back from Hollebeke and Messines.

GENERAL SIR HUBERT GOUGH

Sir Hubert Gough's 2nd Cavalry Division was at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, but failed to get the expected chance of going into action. Shortly after this he took command of the 7th Infantry Division and was engaged in the operations at Festubert. About the middle of July, 1915,[21]
[22]
[23] he was appointed to command the I Corps in succession to Sir C. Monro, who went to the Mediterranean.

At Loos Sir Hubert Gough commanded this Corps, which contained at the time the 2nd, 7th and 9th Divisions. It was his men who stormed Fosse 8 and the Hohenzollern Redoubt.

During the spring of 1916 he was put in command of a Reserve Army, which at the time consisted chiefly of Cavalry and a Staff. After the first day of the Battle of the Somme, when it was apparent that Sir Henry Rawlinson's Fourth Army was engaged on too long a line, the part of the front from la Boiselle